University of Maryland Office of the President Speeches and Statements
University of Maryland Office of the President
Initiatives		 Campus Aerial of the Circle M

D. Enhancing the Curriculum for Diversity

D1. Coordinating Diversity Curriculum Programs. The University has several initiatives on diversity. These include the CORE diversity requirement; the Curriculum Transformation Project; some of the work that is undertaken by the Center for Teaching Excellence; some of the curricular work that takes place in EDCP 108 or other orientation courses; and some of the work that takes place within the Academic Achievement Program. The Diversity Panel applauds these programs for their efforts, but urges representatives from each to expand the lines of communication. They should work together to rethink old programs and figure out ways to reach faculty who have not yet been exposed to the work of these groups.

D2. Expanding Diversity Orientation Programs. Education Counseling and Personnel Services 108, or equivalent courses sponsored by individual colleges and Honors and College Park Scholars programs, should be used more effectively for providing students with the tools for living in a diverse community. At the moment, these orientation courses reach too few students, and spend too little time (if any) on the issues that arise when studying at a campus as diverse as ours. We, therefore, propose that:

  • a. more funds be made available for more effective training of instructors for teaching diversity in all of these orientation courses. We are aware that the administrator responsible for the EDCP 108 program has developed a diversity component for its instructors' training program; but in our meetings with both instructors and students who have taken this course, we discovered that in practice too little time is spent on this in the instructors' training program. Consequently, instructors focus little, if any, attention to diversity in their coursesÐperhaps because they have not been encouraged to take diversity seriously, perhaps because they do not have the knowledge and tools to instruct students in this area.

  • b. funds be made available to increase the number of sections of EDCP 108, or equivalent courses, so that a 1-credit orientation course may be required of all students on our campus. Sections should also be developed for incoming transfer students.

D3. Instructional Improvement Grants Targeting Diversity. We propose that the Dean for Undergraduate Studies' Instructional Improvement Grants be made available for faculty to develop many more diversity CORE courses that focus explicitly on the social construction of gender, race, sexuality, ethnicity, and disability, etc. Faculty in both the humanities and the social sciences (many of whom are on our campus) have produced scholarship, theoretical and empirical, which is at the fore, over the past three decades. The objective of these particular courses would be to provide more students exposure to some of the important literature in the field that focuses on the social construction of difference and, similarly, the social construction of prejudice, discrimination, or oppression.

D4. Increasing Living/Learning Centers Attending to Diversity. Learning how to live in an increasingly diverse society may occur outside the classroom. This learning includes social interactions with peers. Thus, we propose that the campus increase the number of living/learning centers and place students within them (and within the already existing living/learning centers) with attention to diversity.

D5. First Year Focus with Diversity Requirement. Undergraduate Studies should create First Year Focus clusters of 3 courses, plus EDCP 108 or the equivalent; one (not more) of the 3-credit courses should be the required diversity CORE course, so that students take this course with a cohort with whom they may develop close ties and an increased comfort level that would facilitate dealing with difficult issues.

D6. Small Group Curricular Activities Attending to Diversity. We propose that Department Chairs and Associate Deans for Undergraduate Studies work with faculty to develop small group curricular activities and place students into these groups with attention to diversity. Students can learn and experience how to live within a diverse society either by living in close proximity to students unlike themselves (see above) or by studying and working closely with a group of diverse students on projects not focused explicitly on diversity. This strategy is especially appropriate for science and mathematics classes where questions of diversity are not addressed in the curriculum, but can be facilitated within labs or other small group learning situations. The body of literature that emphasizes the value of learning in small groups is extensive and well known on our campus. We are suggesting that faculty take this a step further and no longer assign students to these groups randomly, or alphabetically, or by a process of self-selection that likely favors already existing friendships, but rather construct work groups in which students might enlarge their social and learning networks to include students unlike themselves. This provides for life lessons in diversity, beyond formal classroom instruction.


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